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There is a current controversy among Muslims regarding the circumstances in which women may act as imams—that is, lead a congregation in salah (prayer). (Note that there are many types of Islamic religious leaders aside from imams, and Muslim women have featured as theological figures throughout the history of Islam.) Some schools of Islamic thought make exceptions for tarawih (optional Ramadan prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives.
Historically, certain sects considered it acceptable for a woman to be imam. This was true not just in the Arab heartland of early Islam, but also in China hundreds of years ago. The debate has been reactivated recently, arguing that the spirit of the Koran and the letter of a disputed hadith indicate that women should be able to lead mixed congregations as well as single-sex ones, and that the prohibition of this developed as a result of sexism in the medieval environment and patriarchal interpretations of religious texts, not part of or reflective of true Islam.[1]
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The Quran does not address this issue; relevant precedents are therefore sought for in the hadith, the traditions attributed to Muhammad; the sunnah, his actions, including but not limited to hadith; and the principle of ijma, consensus.
The only hadith that unequivocally states that women may not lead mixed congregations is Ibn Majah (Kitab iqamat is-salat was-sunnati fiha) #1134, narrated through Jabir ibn Abdullah: "A woman may not lead a man in Prayer, nor may a Bedouin lead a believer of the Muhajirun or a corrupt person lead a committed Muslim in Prayer."
An indirectly relevant hadith is widely considered to be crucial, since the imam stands at the front of the congregation. The hadith in question is #881 of Sahih Muslim: "Abu Huraira said: The best rows for men are the first rows, as opposed to the last ones, and the best rows for women are the last ones as opposed to the first ones."[2]
The hadith of Umm Waraqa has given rise to debates among Islamic leaders on whether it is acceptable or not for women to lead prayers, including mixed-gender congregational prayer. Umm Waraqa bint Abdallah, an Ansari woman, who was well versed in the Quran, was instructed by Muhammad to lead ahl dariha, which consisted of both men and women, in prayer. The Arabic phrase means "the people of her home", but the ambiguity hangs on the exact translation of dar, "home", which can refer to one’s residence, neighborhood, or village. The "people of Umm Waraqa’s home" were so numerous that Muhammad appointed a muezzin to call them to prayer. Umm Waraqa was one of the few to hand down the Quran before it was recorded in writing.[3]
The use of the word dar in the hadith, when speaking of where the prayer was held, has resulted in different interpretations. A general translation is "area", constituting the community around where Umm Waraqa lived. This idea is not accepted by many scholars. Another translation is dar is "household", which would mean that Umm Waraqa led prayers in her home. Who was she leading? Imam Zaid presents three possibilities: the two servants of her household and the mu'ahdhin, or the women of her surrounding “area”, or only the women of her household. Each of these possibilities requires certain assumptions, but the most accepted is that Umm Waraqa was leading the women of her household, thus leading to the conclusion that women are allowed to lead prayers of all-female congregations. Zaid insists that if the Prophet established a mosque in the household of a man, which was not uncommon, Itban b. Malik, then he must also have set up women-only congregations.[4]
With regard to women leading congregations of women, however, several hadith report that two of Muhammad's wives, Aisha and Umm Salamah, did so, and as a result most madhhabs support this. According to Qaradawi:
All of the hadiths state that the given woman leads the other women in prayers while standing among them in the same row, and not standing on the first row of the prayers as imams do. They further state that they were among only women, not male worshippers.
Aside from the hadith, there are other sources to consider. The sunnah is a more general source of precedent; it is usually considered to count against women leading mixed congregations, as there are no reports of it happening in Muhammad's time, unless, as Amina Wadud suggested, the aforementioned Umm Waraqah hadith is interpreted to apply to her town rather than to her household alone.
A third source of precedent is the principle of ijma—consensus—supported by the hadith "My community will never agree upon an error." This is also generally quoted against it, since the consensus of the traditional jurists is overwhelmingly against it; however, supporters of the idea argue that this consensus is not universal.
Schools differ on whether a woman may be imam (leader) of a jama'ah (congregational) prayer if the congregation consists of women alone. Three of the four Sunni madhhabs—Shafi'is, Hanafis, and Hanbalis—allow this, although Hanafis consider it to be makrooh, a disliked act. (The fourth division, Malikis, do not permit women to lead women in prayer.) Where it is allowed, the woman stands among the congregation in the front row, instead of alone in front of the congregation. In 2000, six marjas among Iran's Shia leadership declared that they too allowed women to lead a woman-only congregation, reversing a previous ban in that country.[5]
An unusual feature of Islam in China is the existence of nüsi, mosques solely for women. The imams and all the congregants are women and men are not allowed into the buildings. A handful of women have been trained as imams in order to serve these mosques.[6] However, in at least some communities where these mosques operated, women were not allowed in the men's mosques. In recent years, efforts have been made to establish similar mosques in India and Iran.[7]
This is so that the men do not have to look at a woman ahead of them, which might make them aroused. According to Imam an-Nawawi, “If a woman leads a man or men in a congregational prayer, the prayer of the men is invalid. As for her prayer, and the prayer of the women praying with her, it is sound.”
Within the household, if no qualified man is present, is the one exception for women to lead men in prayers.[4] Modern Islamic scholars such as Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, based on the Umm Waraqah hadith mentioned above, consider it permissible for a knowledgeable woman to lead mixed prayers within her own household,[8] as he considers this to largely obviate the danger of the men being aroused by her presence.
In the early years of Islam, the Haruriyyah sect, a branch of the Kharijites movement, founded by Habib ibn-Yazīd al-Harūrī, held that it was permissible to entrust the imamate to a woman if she were able to carry out the required duties. In 699 A.D. (77 A.H.), the founder's wife, Ghazāla al-Harūriyya, even led her male warriors in prayer in Kufa after having controlled the city for a day, following the example of Abu Sufyan's daughter Juwayriyya at the Battle of Yarmuk. Not only did she lead Muslim men in prayer, she recited the two longest chapters in the Quran during that prayer.[9]
Well-known early jurists — including Al-Tabari (838–932), historian, exegete and founder of a now defunct juristic school; Abu Thawr (764–854), mufti of Iraq; Al-Muzani (791–878); and Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) — considered the practice permissible at least for optional (nafl salat) prayers.[10] Al-Muthani (d. 878), student of Shafii and contributor to the establishment of the Shafii juristic school,allowed women to unconditionally lead men in prayer. However, the views of these scholars are not accepted by any major surviving group.
A few fatwas exist permitting women to lead a mixed gender congregation regardless of familial relationship. For instance, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl recommends that the placement of the imam be made with greater modesty in mind for a female imam. Some traditional scholars caution against Yusuf Qaradawi's methodology and regard him as excessively lenient as he does not limit himself to the positions of the four Sunni schools of fiqh'.
Adding to the arguments in favor of woman-led prayer of mixed congregations, Laury Silvers and Ahmed Elewa recently published a detailed article in the Journal of Law and Religion arguing that female imams are permissible in all circumstances. Their abstract reads:
A woman disguised as a man attempted to deliver a Jum'ah khutbah but was detected by members of the congregation and arrested by the Bahraini police. The incident occurred at one of the biggest mosques in the island state, in front of 7000 worshippers, on the last Friday of Ramadan in 2004. The would-be khatib, wearing full male dress with a false beard and moustache, sat on the minbar just before speaking, at which point some worshippers realised that the new imam was a woman in disguise. They and the mosque's imam, Sheikh Adnan Al-Qattan, handed the 40 year old woman over to the police.[12]
Canadian Muslims have been active in the woman-led prayer movement since 2004.[13][14][15] The United Muslim Association (UMA) is committed to having women deliver the khutbah and lead the salah.
In that year, 20-year-old Maryam Mirza delivered the second half of the Eid al-Fitr khutbah at the Etobicoke mosque in Toronto, run by the UMA.[16] Later the same year, Yasmin Shadeer led the night isha prayer with her male and female congregants.[17] - the first recorded occasion in contemporary times where a woman led a congregation in prayer in a mosque.
In April 2005, Raheel Raza led Toronto's first woman-led mixed-gender Friday service, delivering the khutbah and leading the prayers of the congregation. The event was organized by the Muslim Canadian Congress to celebrate Earth Day, and was held in the backyard of the downtown Toronto home of activist Tarek Fatah.[18] The former Mufti of Marseille, Soheib Bencheikh, requested that either Raza[19] or Pamela Taylor lead him in prayer during a visit to Canada in February 2006. The prayers were sponsored by the Muslim Canadian Congress and held in a private venue with a mixed gender congregation.[20] In 2008, Taylor, a Muslim convert since 1986, gave the Friday khutbah and led the mixed-gender prayers at the UMA Toronto mosque at the invitation of the Muslim Canadian Congress on Canada Day.[21] In addition to leading the prayers, Taylor also gave a sermon on the importance of equality among people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, and/or disability.[22]
From 2008, the Noor Cultural Centre in Toronto has included women on their Board of Khatibs, and women and men alternate giving the call to prayer each week . Women regularly give full length sermons prior to the second adhan, with a male khatib delivering the Arabic portion in brief after the second call. In 2009, academic Laury Silvers and activist lawyer El-Farouk Khaki founded the El-Tawhid Juma Circle in downtown Toronto. The circle is gender-equal, homosexual-friendly, and religiously non-discriminatory. All Muslims are welcome to lead the prayer and give the sermon.[13][14][15] It helps set up similar circles when asked; the first sister circle was founded in Washington D.C., in early 2011 (see USA section below).
Muslims for Progressive Values Canada, an affiliate of Muslims for Progressive Values USA, founded in 2010 by Shahla Khan Salter (chair) leads mixed congregational prayers in Ottawa, Canada. Prayers for MPV Canada have been led by women, including Farhat Rehman and by Zeinab A.
The El Tawhid Unity Mosque in Toronto founded by Dr. Laury Silvers regularly conducts Friday prayers led by women in a mixed congregation. The person delivering the khutbah may be a woman or a man.
A unique feature of Islam in China is the presence of female-only mosques. Among the Hui people, but not other Muslim ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs, Quranic schools for girls evolved into woman-only mosques and women acted as imams as early as 1820.[23] These imams are called Nu Ahong, and they guide female Muslims in worship and prayer.[24]
Kathleen O'Connor noted in 2009 that a madrasa in Morocco had started training women as imams.[25]
South African Muslims heard their first female-led Jum'ah khutbah in 1994 when African-American Islamic studies professor Amina Wadud spoke at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town,[26] an experience she discusses in Inside the Gender Jihad. Since then, both that mosque and Masjidul Islam in Johannesburg often have women speakers for jum'ah. Amongst them are Ai'sha Jennifer Roberts, Farhana Ismail, Moefidah Jaffer and Zakiya Seguro.
From 1995 to 1997, a congregation in Johannesburg met every Friday for the jum'ah prayer, and every night in Ramadan for the tarāwīh prayer, in a building owned by the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa (MYM). The khutbah was delivered by either a male or female khatib and the imams who led the prayer also included men and women. Farid Esack refers to this in his book Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism. One of the prime movers behind this congregation was Muslim women's rights activist Shamima Shaikh. In January 1998, as per her wishes, one of her four funeral prayers was led by a woman friend, Farhana Ismail.
In 2003, a new venue for Eid prayer was established in Durban, designed to allow families to attend the Eid prayer together in a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere. It is run by Taking Islam to the People. At each Eid salaah there are two khutbahs delivered, one by a male and one by a female. Over the seven years from 2003–2010, fourteen women have offered khutbah, including Dr. Lubna Nadvi, Zaytun Suleyman, Fatima Seedat, Fatima Hendricks and Dr Mariam Seedat.[27]
In 2005, Farhana Ismail first officiated at a nikah (wedding) ceremony. She has trained other women to do so; since 2006, Fatima Seedat has officiated at three such ceremonies.
In May 2007, as a guest of the Muslim Youth Movement, the American visitor, Laury Silvers, gave the Friday sermon at the Claremont Road Mosque in Cape Town and an associated mosque in Johannesburg.[28]
Spanish Muslims have been some of the greatest supporters of the woman-led prayer movement. Spanish imam Abdennur Prado responded immediately to the controversial prayer by American Amina Wadud (see USA section) with a supportive legal opinion. He was one of the organisers of the October 2005 Islamic feminism conference in Barcelona, the first attended by men and women from around the world, at which Wadud led a mixed gender congregational prayer.[29][30][31] In 2010, another visiting academic, South African Dr. Sa'diyya Sheikh, gave the khutbah and led the Friday prayer for a mixed congregation.
Turkish Muslims are conscious of their influence in modernising Islam. The state-run mosques have trained hundreds of women as vaizes, a term translated by the BBC as "senior imams"[32] and by the Washington Times as "female preachers".[33] The WT says, "As well as being preachers, women now have the right to lead groups on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and 15 Turkish provinces have women serving as deputy muftis — specialists on religious law who monitor the work of imams in mosques. Significantly, given that 70 percent of requests for advice come from women, the assistant muftis have the right to issue fatwas, or religious opinions." According to the Christian Science Monitor, in 2005 "Diyanet, a government body that oversees the country's mosques and trains religious leaders, added 150 women preachers across Turkey" and has moved on to "selecting a group of women who will serve as deputies to muftis, or expounders of religious law. From this post, they'll monitor the work being done by imams in local mosques, particularly as it relates to women.".[34]
British Muslims had their first chance to hear a female-led mixed-gender salah in 2008, when the American scholar Amina Wadud performed the Friday prayer at Oxford's Wolfson College.[35][36] In 2010 Raheel Raza became the first Muslim-born woman to lead a mixed-gender British congregation through Friday prayers.[37]
In 2005, African-American Islamic scholar Amina Wadud led a congregation in Friday prayer and gave a sermon in New York City. Another woman sounded the call to prayer, while not wearing a headscarf, and no curtain divided the men and women.[38] This was not the first woman-led mixed-gender congregational prayer (see the above noted events), but it was the first to gain national and international attention. See Amina_Wadud#Friday_prayer for fuller information.
The Progressive Muslim Union followed the Wadud prayer with a woman-led prayer initiative. The initiative sought to bring together the varied progressive opinions on the prayer as well as engage more conservative Muslims by encouraging further debate, highlighting legal opinions in support of the prayer (as well as giving space to the overwhelming negative opinions), facilitating Muslims who would like to organize future prayers, and documenting those events as they heard of them. Progressives and others sympathetic to bringing about a transformation of gender privilege in Islam continue to work for the establishment of woman-led prayer.
Many perceived the Wadud prayer to be an inevitable reaction to the deplorable situation of women in mosques in North America. The attention garnered by the event forced more conservative Muslim organizations to publicly acknowledge the situation and call for changes. ISNA responded with guidelines for women-friendly mosques.[39] Scholars such as Imam Zaid Shakir and Dr. Louay M. Safi have been calling attention to and working to change mosque conditions for years. Progressives and others would argue, though, that mosque conditions are merely a symptom of a widespread sense of male entitlement following centuries of male privilege in the intellectual and political power centers of Islam.
Women continue to lead prayers in the United States in their communities with or without media coverage: Nakia Jackson led Eid prayers in 2006 and 2007, with Laury Silvers giving the khutba.
Since early 2006, Muslims for Progressive Values has had a continuous gender-equal prayer space in West Hollywood, California. Both men and women are allowed to lead prayers and deliver a khutba. Although congregants may choose to position themselves wherever they like, there is no gender segregation policy during prayer.[40] The first dedicated gender-equal prayer space in the United States was founded by Fatima Thompson and Imam Daayiee Abdullah in Washington D.C., as a sister mosque to the El-Tawhid Juma Circle founded two years previously in Toronto (see above).